The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-08-06
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
RACE or SMALL ruRkEYs.

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RACE OF SMALL TURKEYS.
curious case of race-deterioration has been
furnished by Mr.. J. D. Cation. Ten years ago
number of wild turkeys were sent by him from
Ottawa to Santa Cruz Island located in the Pacific
some twenty miles from the American coast. Late
descendants from these birds are found to grow
only one-third as large as their ancestors-the
largest cocks hardly weighing six pounds. This
remarkable diminution in size is believed to have
resulted solely from inbreeding too close rela-
tionship of parents.
MUcH-DEBATED QUESTION.
An old legend asserts that scorpion, when
placed within ring of red-hot embers, will, after
futile efforts to pass the fiery CIRCLE deliberately
commit suicide by singing itself in the head
Eminent scientific men have often disagreed con-
corning the truhfulness of the assertion and many
chapters have been written on it. The subject has
lately been thoroughly Investigated by Prof. A. G..
Bourne, of Madras, who finds that the greatest
effect of scorpion poison upon scorpion is slight
sluggishness, and that death within fire.ring
must be due to heat. Sir Joseph Fayrer had al
ready shown that the poison of the deadly cobra
will not affect cobra.
THE INSECT WORLD.
We're possibleto take census of the individual
insects upon the globe, the result must be array
of figures Of whose meaning we could form little
conception. The members of each species multi
ply in countless millions, yet even the number of
distinct species is so great that we can hardly do
more than guess at it. Entomologists generally
concede that upwards of 100000 species of insects
have been recognized, and some authors place the
number as high as 10000, while it is probable
that these may represent not more than tenth OF
the number actually inhabiting the earths surface.
Probably not less than one-half of the indicated
FORMS, says Prof. Heilprin, belong to the order
Coleoptera, or beetles, which is by far the most
numerously represented of all the orders. The
Lepidoptera, or butterflies, have thus far yielded
some 900 species-or about one-thirteenth OF
the total number GOO, O00) estimated by Speyer
for the world at large-and an equal number may,
perhaps, be credited to the Hymenoptera (bees,
wasps and ants), the Hemiptera (bugs), and Dip
terra (fies). The Orthoptera, or straight winged
insects, which include the locusts, grasshoppers,
etc., are considerably less numerous, while the
species of netted-veined forms (Neuroptera) prob
ably number only about 2,000 The insects are
most numerously developed in the tropics, but they
are by no means rare in the coolest regions reach
ed by man. Sir George Mares brought home no
less than As species of true insects from beyond
the 18th parallel of latitude in Grinnell Land,
while over so species represented in Greenland
and more than 800 in Iceland. Many of the in
sects of earlier geological ages are known to us as
fossils from the rocks, these being found by Mr.
S. H. Scudder to embrace at the present time at
least $500 species.
GASES AS LIQUIDS AND SOLIDS.
Olszewski, the Russian physicist, has been con-
tinuing his researches on the condensation OF the
gases, with some very interesting results He has
shown that even the more permanent gases may
be liquefed at only moderate pressure by the low
Temperatures he has been able to produce, and has
also determined the boiling points, meltingpoints
and densities of these so-called gases at atmos-
pheric pressure. Liquefed methane boiled at 263
degrees F. below zero, oxygen at 294.5 degrees,
- - rhopp non q
degrees, and nitric oxide at PAS degrees. Solid
fled carbon monoxide melted at 34O.6 degrees, and
nitrogen at 1853 degrees. At the temperatures and
pressures required to retain the liquid form, the
density of methane was 0.415, of oxygen LIZA,
and of nitrogen 0SS5, water at go degrees and at
mospheric pressure being 1000. Solid nitrogen,
at 373 degrees, gave the lowest temperature yet
recorded.
LAND ELEVATION IN FINLAND.
In many parts of the world abundant evidence
shows that the land is still slowly rising sink
ing, producing gradual changes that in the course
of ages will completely transform the earth's topog-
raphy. One of the most remarkable examples has
been furnished by Sweden and Finland. Lyell
long ago estimated that portions of Sweden are
being elevated about four feet in a century, and
surveys just made in Finland once more prove that
the shores of the Baltic are steadily rising. M.
Venukoffreports to the French Academy of Sciences
that since the surveys of 1S10-15 several islands
have become peninsulas, while many shadows have
become islands or beaches. On the southwest coast
and in the neighboring Aland Archipelago, pas
lures, gardens and corn fields occupy spots which
were under water few years ago. Steps are be-
ing taken to accurately measure the future pro-
gress of this geological phenomenon.
MISCELLANEOUS.
inequality in the pupils of the eyes has been
taken as symptom of illness, but in 1874 healthy
persons Russian physician has found only twelve
with right and left pupils of equal size.
biologists are perplexed by the return this sea-
son of enormous shoals of herring to point on
the southwest coast of Norway from which they
suddenly and completely disappeared twenty
years ago.
A professorship in sanitary engineering
only chair of the kind in any college-has been
established in the Imperial Institute OF Toxic, by
the Government of Japan.
DR.. Welander has found mercury in the body
from six to twelve months, and even more, after
its use was discontinued, but discredits the state
ment that it may remain for twelve or thirteen
years in the system.
A less restricted diet in athletic training is be-
ing favored in England, and, instead of the large
proportion of meat formerly rigidy insisted on,
Psychologists now consider variety of food essen
tial to the best results The Cambridge boat crew,
in training for the race with Oxford, were this
year permitted to eat fish, buildings and dessert
dinner though still forbidden sugar with pastry